Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry forms like haiku, choka and tanka. It’s a warmhearted family of haiku poets created by Chèvrefeuille, a Dutch haiku poet. Japanese poetry is the poetry of nature and it gives an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. ++ ALL WORKS PUBLISHED ARE COPYRIGHTED AND THE RIGHTS BELONG TO THE AUTHORS ++ !!! Anonymous comments will be seen as SPAM !!!

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Carpe Diem #841 Gion Matsuri

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you could have read ... I hadn't time to create this new episode on time, so I love to apologize again for the delay. I will try to publish the following episodes on time. At the moment I am in the nightshift and maybe I have time to create a few episodes and schedule them, but I can not guarantee that ... well I will do the best I can.

Today's episode is about Gion Matsuri another wonderful Japanese Festival. The Gion
Festival (Gion Matsuri) takes place annually in Kyoto and is one of the most
famous festivals in Japan. It goes for the entire month of July and is crowned
by a parade, the Yamaboko Junkō on July 17 and July 24. It takes its name from
Kyoto's Gion district.

Kyoto's
downtown area is reserved for pedestrian traffic on the three nights leading up
to the massive parade. These nights are known as yoiyama on July 16 and July
23, yoiyoiyama on July 15 and July 22, and yoiyoiyoiyama on July 14 and July
21. The streets are lined with night stalls selling food such as yakitori
(barbecued chicken skewers), taiyaki, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, traditional
Japanese sweets, and many other culinary delights. Many girls dressed in yukata
(summer kimono) walk around the area, carrying with them traditional purses and
paper fans.

During the
yoiyama evenings leading up to the parade, some private houses in the old
kimono merchant district open their entryways to the public, exhibiting
valuable family heirlooms, in a custom known as the Byōbu Matsuri, or Folding
Screen Festival. This is a precious opportunity to visit and observe
traditional Japanese residences of Kyoto.

This
festival originated as part of a purification ritual (goryo-e) to appease the
gods thought to cause fire, floods and earthquakes. In 869, the people were
suffering from plague and pestilence which was attributed to the rampaging
deity Gozu Tennō. Emperor Seiwa ordered that the people pray to the god of the
Yasaka Shrine, Susanoo-no-mikoto. Sixty-six stylized and decorated halberds,
one for each province in old Japan, were prepared and erected at Shinsen-en, a
garden, along with the portable shrines (mikoshi) from Yasaka Shrine.

This
practice was repeated wherever an outbreak occurred. In 970, it was decreed an
annual event and has since seldom been broken. Over time the increasingly
powerful and influential merchant class made the festival more elaborate and,
by the Edo period (1603–1868), used the parade to brandish their wealth.

In 1533,
the Ashikaga shogunate halted all religious events, but the people protested,
stating that they could do without the rituals, but not the procession. This marks
the progression into the festival's current form. Smaller floats that were lost
or damaged over the centuries have been restored, and the weavers of the
Nishijin area offer new tapestries to replace destroyed ones. When not in use,
the floats and regalia are kept in special storehouses throughout the central
merchant district of Kyoto in the care of the local people.

This
festival also serves as an important setting in Yasunari Kawabata's novel, The
Old Capital which he describes, along with the Festival of Ages and the Aoi
Festival, as "the 'three great festivals' of the old capital."

Not a very strong one, but it gives the essence of this wonderful festival.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 23rd at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, a new episode of CD's Haiku Writing Techniques, later on. For now ... have fun!

I do this every day. I have every month a special theme on which i built the prompts. Next to the daily prompts i have special features. For example this last quarter of 2015 i provide every wednesday an essay/article about haiku writing techniques together with well known haiku poetess Jane Reichhold. This month i have cd specials with haiku written by Michael Dylan Welch and Cor van den Heuvel. Feel free to participate Carol.

Dear Carol, every daily prompt is open for submissions for only three days. Gion Matsuri has already closed, but if you would like to add a haiku to Gion Matsuri than you can write your url of your haiku here in the comment field and i will add it to the linking widget.

CARPE DIEM's HAIKU FAMILY

Follow by Email

BASHO REVISITED

Google+ Followers

try it our QR-code

Highlight

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI FORUM

conversation ? questions? visit our forum.

CARPE DIEM ON FACEBOOK

My Visitors

Tribute To Jane Reichhold, a new CDHK Tumblr

Feel free to visit

IMPROMPTU VERSE

Sometimes a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form comes in mind just in one eye-blink. Those poems I call Impromptu-verses. Here I will publish these Impromptu-verses. Today's Impromptu verse: (10)

VISIT ALSO

I am a member of

VISIT MY HOME WEBLOG

CARPE DIEM ON

PINTEREST

WORDPRESS WEBLOG

Chèvrefeuille's Haiku

NOW ONLINE

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Academy

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI SPECIAL

special features

Publishing Policy

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Carpe Diem is the place to be if you like to write and share haiku (or another Japanese poetry form like e.g. tanka). It's a family of haiku loving poets.Japanese poetry is known as the impression of a short moment, say a heartbeat or an eye-blink, in which nature plays an important role.It's free to participate in Carpe Diem. By participating in Carpe Diem, you agree with the use of your work in the exclusive e-book series of Carpe Diem.Of course your work will be credited as Carpe Diem always does. However all the texts and works at Carpe Diem are copyrighted and the rights belong to the authors.

March 20th 2016

Chèvrefeuille, your host

PS. Of course it is possible that you don't want to have your work published in our exclusive series of CDHK e-books. Please let me know that by sending an e-mail to our e-mail address carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com